1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a wireless digital data transfer, and more particularly to a wireless digital data transfer that exploits a broadcast system to enhance a wireless gaming experience.
2. Description of the Background Art
Wireless networks are used to transmit digital data both through wires and through radio links. Examples of a wireless network are cellular telephone networks, pager networks, etc. Such wireless networks may include land lines, radio links and satellite links, and may be used for purposes such as cellular phone systems, Internet systems, computer networks, pager systems and other satellite systems. Such wireless networks are becoming increasingly popular and of increasingly higher capacity. Much information and data is transmitted via wireless networks, and they are becoming a common part of people""s business and personal lives. As people use them in greater and greater numbers, these networks have been forced to grow in both size and capacity.
One aspect of wireless digital networks that has been growing rapidly is gaming. Network gaming may consist of one or more players communicating with other players or computer systems to conduct a game. These network gaming systems may encompass simulations, gambling games, interactive games, fantasy games, role playing, combat games, adventure games, etc. The popularity is growing as computer systems and computer software for such games increases in complexity and realism. Therefore, the demand for such gaming systems has increased.
The transfer of digital data includes the transfer of text, audio, and graphical data. A user may interactively acquire the data (i.e., by sending commands or requests, such as in a game), or in a more passive manner (simply accepting and using or storing the data).
In addition to gaming, this data may have a wide variety of uses, including simulations, data sharing, skills measuring or performance testing, coordinated viewing, etc.
Wireless networks have also brought about a change in devices that communicate the data. A wide variety of handheld wireless devices have been developed along with wireless networks. Such handheld wireless devices include, for example, cellular phones, pagers, radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), notebook or laptop computers incorporating wireless modems, mobile data terminals, application specific gaming devices, video gaming devices incorporating wireless modems, etc.
To address this increasing demand for gaming, one increasingly popular alternative has been the use of wireless networks that use radio frequency (RF) transmission. For example, using wireless devices, people can participate in a gaming experience on trains, buses, taxis, in motels, restaurants, away from home, in the backyard, on the patio, etc. Therefore, there has been increasing demand for digital network gaming that can be played using both conventional land-based links and wireless networks.
FIG. 1 shows a typical prior art cellular network 100 used for gaming. This may include a cellular network 111, a gaming server 116 connected to the cellular network 111, and one or more base stations 105 connected to the cellular network 111. The base stations 105 may communicate with a plurality of devices 101. One example of such a network used for gaming is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,583 to Comas et al.
A large drawback of the prior art is inadequate bandwidth. The bandwidth of digital data link determines how much data can flow through it. The wireless network bandwidth is, of course, chosen to accommodate digitized audio signals, which do not require a large amount of bandwidth. Narrow bandwidth is a problem where graphics and video data need to be transmitted, because graphical and video data require a large amount of bandwidth (most games employ some kind of graphics and/or video). Conventional wireless networks therefore have been insufficient in performance for applications requiring transfer of large quantities of data, especially gaming data. Prior art wireless networks give a sluggish performance and unsatisfactory game play. Users want their games, or any kind of digital data download, to be as fast as they can assimilate and process the data. Users do not want to wait for data to arrive, do not want jerky images, long downloading times, and graphics that don""t change as needed.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved digital data transfer method and apparatus for conducting a digital data transfer over a wireless network.